Popular self-publishing and book printing company, Lulu, drops DRM

Submitted by Kÿra on January 22, 2013 - 11:31am

Online self-publishing platforms have lowered barriers for authors to get their works published, giving rise to a new kind of literature that works without big publishers. Lulu is one of the most popular solutions for writers to easily sell their works in print or as ebooks. A few years ago, they defended their DRM-encumbered ebooks, but they have just announced that they are saying goodbye to DRM.

From the comments section of Lulu's announcement, it seems many authors are not happy with this move, despite the clear benefits of dropping DRM. Lulu's move to drop DRM is a win for authors and literature, but not all authors understand why this is true and have expressed concerns with the change. You could help here by chiming in on the comments on this story and other places where the news is being discussed to explain the harms of DRM. This most recent domino in the series of publishers who have abandoned DRM will certainly continue the important discussion of why DRM harms everyone except for the gatekeepers like Amazon which try to monopolize digital file distribution through DRM vendor lock-in.